Table Of ContentThe Routledge Handbook
of Semantics
The Routledge Handbook of Semantics provides a broad and state-of-the-art survey of this
field, covering semantic research at both word and sentence level. It presents a synoptic view of
the most important areas of semantic investigation, including contemporary methodologies and
debates, and indicating possible future directions in the field.
Written by experts from around the world, the 29 chapters cover key issues and approaches
within the following areas:
• meaning and conceptualisation
• meaning and context
• lexical semantics
• semantics of specific phenomena
• development, change and variation.
The Routledge Handbook of Semantics is essential reading for researchers and postgraduate
students working in this area.
Nick Riemer is a senior lecturer in the English and Linguistics Departments at the University
of Sydney, and a member of the Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques, Université
Paris-Diderot. He specializes in semantics and in the history and philosophy of linguistics.
Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics
Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics provide overviews of a whole subject area or sub-discipline
in linguistics, and survey the state of the discipline including emerging and cutting-edge areas.
Edited by leading scholars, these volumes include contributions from key academics from around
the world and are essential reading for both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The Routledge Handbook of Syntax The Routledge Handbook of the English
Edited by Andrew Carnie, Yosuke Sato and Writing System
Daniel Siddiqi Edited by Vivian Cook and Des Ryan
The Routledge Handbook of Historical The Routledge Handbook of Language
Linguistics and Media
Edited by Claire Bowern and Edited by Daniel Perrin and Colleen Cotter
Bethwyn Evans
The Routledge Handbook of
The Routledge Handbook of Language Phonological Theory
and Culture Edited by S. J. Hannahs and Anna Bosch
Edited by Farzad Sharifan
The Routledge Handbook of Theoretical
The Routledge Handbook of Semantics and Experimental Sign Language
Edited by Nick Riemer Research
Edited by Annika Hermann, Roland Pfau
The Routledge Handbook of Morphology and Josep Quer
Edited by Francis Katamba
The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic
The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics Anthropology
Edited by Keith Allan Edited by Nancy Bonvillain
The Routledge Handbook
of Semantics
Edited by
Nick Riemer
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Nick Riemer; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Routledge Handbook of Semantics/Edited by Nick Riemer.
pages cm. – (Routledge handbooks in linguistics)
Includes index.
1. Semantics–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Historical semantics–Handbooks,
manuals, etc. 3. Generative semantics–Handbooks, manuals, etc.
4. Lexicology. I. Riemer, Nick, 1972-
P325.R78 2015
401′.43–dc23
2015003748
ISBN: 978-0-415-66173-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68553-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
i.m. Peter Koch
Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xi
List of contributors xii
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction: Semantics – a theory in search of an object 1
Nick Riemer
PART I
Foundational issues 11
1 (Descriptive) Externalism in semantics 13
Steven Gross
2 Internalist semantics: meaning, conceptualization and expression 30
Nick Riemer
3 A history of semantics 48
Keith Allan
PART II
Approaches 69
4 Foundations of formal semantics 71
Jon Gajewski
5 Cognitive semantics 90
Maarten Lemmens
6 Corpus semantics 106
Michael Stubbs
vii
Contents
PART III
Meaning and conceptualization 123
7 Categories, prototypes and exemplars 125
James A. Hampton
8 Embodiment, simulation and meaning 142
Benjamin Bergen
9 Linguistic relativity 158
Daniel Casasanto
PART IV
Meaning and context 175
10 Semantics and pragmatics 177
John Saeed
11 Contextual adjustment of meaning 195
Robyn Carston
PART V
Lexical semantics 211
12 Lexical decomposition 213
Nick Riemer
13 Sense individuation 233
Dirk Geeraerts
14 Sense relations 248
Petra Storjohann
15 Semantic shift 266
John Newman
PART VI
Semantics of specific phenomena 281
16 The semantics of nominals 283
Sebastian Löbner
17 Negation and polarity 303
Doris Penka
viii
Contents
18 Varieties of quantification 320
Anna Szabolcsi
19 Lexical and grammatical aspect 338
Stephen Dickey
20 Tense 354
Ilse Depraetere and Raphael Salkie
21 Modality 370
Ilse Depraetere
22 Event semantics 387
Jean-Pierre Koenig
23 Participant roles 403
Beatrice Primus
24 Compositionality 419
Adele E. Goldberg
25 The semantics of lexical typology 434
Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Ekaterina Rakhilina and Martine Vanhove
PART VII
Extensions 455
26 Acquisition of meaning 457
Soonja Choi
27 Expressives 473
Ad Foolen
28 Interpretative semantics 491
François Rastier
29 Semantic processing 507
Steven Frisson and Martin J. Pickering
Index 525
ix
